Not All Fears Are Phobias

Editor’s note: The Freedom Center placed an ad, Not All Fears Are Phobias, in the UCLA Daily Bruin, which appeared on October 13, 2011. The background to the ad was an “Anti-Islamophobia Resolution” passed unanimously last spring by the UCLA Student Council. The resolution specifically sought to ban criticism of Islamic misogyny, Jew-hatred and terror, and specifically named David Horowitz as guilty of Islamaphobia. The Freedom Center responded with our ad (seen above and here) and caused something of a firestorm. It was followed by a response, printed in the Bruin, of the campus J Street organization, which joined hands with the Muslim Student Association to attack our ad.

We are trying to place our ad in as many college papers that will accept it. Please contact us if you’d like to submit it to your college paper. Write to: elizabeth@horowitzfreedomcenter.org.

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Below is the joint response from J Street U at UCLA and the Muslim Student Association in the Daily Bruin to our ad:

David Horowitz Ad Unites Jewish, Muslim Communities.

Friendship can be forged under the most unlikely circumstances. Therefore, we formally thank the David Horowitz Freedom Center for providing us with this opportunity to find common ground against a common problem.

On Oct. 13 , the David Horowitz Freedom Center published an ad in the Daily Bruin titled “Not All Fears Are Phobias,” wrongly identifying Islam as a perpetrator of terrorism worldwide. By submitting the ad to our campus newspaper, the DHFC sought to bring its politics of division and fear to our campus community. Instead, it became a rallying point between two populations with viewpoints that often conflict. J Street U at UCLA and the Muslim Student Association have joined in solidarity to demonstrate to campus that we must rise above messages that intend to tear us apart.

No, really. This wouldn’t have happened if you had not published this. David Horowitz, you are truly a peacemaker.

The ad presents one step in a campaign to isolate the American Muslim community, all but labeling the entire community a security threat. The David Horowitz Freedom Center attempts to legitimize a policy of exclusion and suspicion of American Muslims and galvanize a susceptible population against them.

The Horowitz ad has made students on campus feel uncomfortable, upset and unsafe. While Muslim students feel it attacks their personal identity, others see the ad as unrepresentative of their values. This ad creates an environment where a specific community feels unsure of whether it can express its identity without fear of backlash or condemnation. The university has an obligation to protect its students in this capacity, especially when UCLA is among the most diverse campuses in the United States.

The campus Muslim community expressed widespread dismay and unease over the message embedded in the ad. They were outraged at being implicated in the actions of extremists, a tiny percentage of the overall population. Many members of the MSA felt unsafe and wary of a campus that might have endorsed a blanket criminalization of a religion rather than attributing blame to the individuals who committed the crimes.

If the David Horowitz Freedom Center really wanted to combat extremism, it would be urging us to communicate and learn from our classmates instead of preaching a dogma of intolerance. In actuality, placing the ad encourages the spread of extremism, divides our community and leads to demonization of student populations.

How can an organization that is against anti-Semitism condone Islamophobia? We feel that anyone against the former yet allowing the latter is applying a double standard to our neighboring communities. From J Street U’s standpoint, the Jewish values that we have been brought up on will not allow us to condone the oppression of any society, for our community is not exclusive to this experience. Our religious and ethnic memory is stained with millennia of oppression, and we pity those who have not learned from it. Our community suffered greatly, and we will do whatever we can to make sure others do not have to.

The solidarity shown by non-Muslim students for fellow Muslim students has helped to mitigate the dismay experienced by the MSA and wider Muslim community. Several members of the Muslim community stated that they felt reassured by the display of shared sympathy and very much appreciated the verbal expressions of support. The MSA and J Street U at UCLA decided to take this opportunity to collaborate and show the campus that personal friendships and logical arguments always trump fear.

It’s not only about the Jewish and Muslim communities. No community on or off campus should be demonized or disrespected. Instead of fostering fear and rejection, it’s our duty to try to understand each other’s cultures or viewpoints. The great thing about UCLA is the diversity of its student community. It takes special courage to approach the “other,” but it is always worth the risk.

J Street U and the Muslim Student Association at UCLA envision a campus where we’re not afraid to share our experiences, our cultures and our identities. Everyone does not need to agree, but everyone should be allowed to present their own viewpoints. The kind of ad that propagates fear of the “other,” but doesn’t allow that “other” community to speak for itself, is not what we need on campus. We don’t want a campus where people are scared of each other and where students are discouraged from interacting with people whom they disagree with or see as different. With this collaboration, we have taken our first step toward realizing this vision. We invite the campus community to join us.

This message is a joint response from J Street U at UCLA and the Muslim Student Association, written in collaboration between Fowzia Sharmeen, Jared Schwalb and Gabriel Levine, a UCLA alumna, fourth-year student and third-year student, respectively.

J street is akin to "Jewish self government" (Judenrat) under Nazis in Ghettos, which "maintained the order", filled the cattle cars with the daily quota for the death camps, and generally propagated the Nazi talk points and disinformation. The only excuse for the baseness of Judenrat was that they collaborated with Nazis under the hellish conditions… Unlike them, J street collaborates with islamic piranhas willingly, living in the (still) best and freest of the worlds.

J street does it because of their extreme stupidity, incapable to see the enemy's goal despite of plenty of sources proving beyond the reasonable doubt that

Entire islam is a problem, the moderate islam is an invention.

That islam in its essence is anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-American.

Or perhaps J street had already made their bets: the bets on the islamic victory. So they are seeking the enemy's favors right now. J-streeters exemplify the curse of our people, rooted in the long past (see item 4, Disorder among Jewry in the USA in:http://www.resonoelusono.com/ApostasyOfJewry.htm

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

You can always do what Moses did. Commit genocide against the dissenters and blame it on Yahweh.

kafir4life

Let's say for example someone were to point out the inconvenient truth that islam is a gutter cult invented by the worst example of humanity, the false prophet and agent of satan, mohamat the pig faced dog. And for argument's sake, it was also pointed out that this mohamat had sex with, then later a meal of his favorite pig, or allah as he liked to call him, then later shat the contents of what muslims call the koran, or accurately put, the terror guide, what would the penalty be, if any. IMHO the penalty should be giggles and gafaws.
allahu snackbar!

WildJew

I have a biography entitled: "The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, ALONE, 1932-1940," by William Manchester. I know there are no perfect historic analogies. Honestly, this response from J Street U at UCLA reminds me of the reaction of the greater part of the English people to Churchill's warnings during the nineteen thirties. Churchill was a "war monger!" A "fear monger!"

"Nazism became fashionable in London's West End. Ladies wore bracelets with swastika charms; young men combed their hair to slant across their foreheads."

"The King and Country debate was a discussion at the Oxford Union debating society (whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford) on 9 February 1933 of the resolution: 'That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country'. It was passed by 275 votes to 153, and became one of the most well-known and notorious debates conducted in the Union."

http://www.resonoelusono.com/NaturalBornCitizen.htm Alexander Gofen

You brought a perfect and timely historic analogy, thank you. The British elites of these days kowtow to islam in ways more grotesque than their predecessors did in the 30s to Nazis.

Gunner57

The Learning Channel is coming out with a propaganda series entitled "All American Muslims" designed to further intimidate Americans against fighting back against Islam. Meanwhile Muslims keep pouring to our shores through our insane legal immigration policies.

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

Is this to be another Horowitz Barnum show where college students have to pay $1800 to be insulted by an advertisement in their own newspaper before they are locked out of a parasitical lecture to a closed group of local media?

WildJew

What do you mean by locked out? What do you disagree with in this in this ad?

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

As I said before, I have attended these publicity stunts. Horowitz first buys a giant ad in the school paper in which he publishes his attack on the student body of the university he is about to swindle. The “rebuttal” consists of tiny unpurchased opinions crammed at the end of the letters section. Then he arrives at an overbooked, undersized room for a closed meeting with the local press, but broadcast to the students who are locked outside in the lobby. Then he collects his fee and that goes into a massive fund to insult more students and also pay Robert Spencer.

WildJew

Because I am confined to my agricultural business, unlike you, I am not able to move about largely and attend these (what you call) "publicity" events. What I've seen on video does not seem to bear out your side of the argument. For example, this well-publicized exchange at University of California, San Diego, does not appear to be an over-booked (notice the empty seats to the left of the MSA student / questioner), undersized room for a closed meeting with local press, but an open forum on campus:

I love that one. “You’re only outraged because you’re IGNORANT!” I say that to myself for amusement while I brush my teeth. The anti-Islamic dog and pony show. Horowitz vs Burka mouth foaming competition. I wanted to see him debate Khallid Muhammad.

stern

And when student fees pay for speakers like Al Gore, Michael Moore and others with whom I would assume you agree, that's not a swindle? Even though students who may disagree with those views have also paid their fees towards hosting those speakers?

Why is it that anyone who disagrees with people like David Horowitz will always scream blue bloody murder and do their darndest to prevent those people from being heard – but will also always be the first to scream about "free speech" when somebody disagrees with them?

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

Of course that’s a swindle too, but at least the student body at large can go and ask a viable but heckling question of Al Gore. They don’t have to wait outside on the sidewalk to rebut the paid advertisement against themselves.

StephenD

"How can an organization that is against anti-Semitism condone Islamophobia?"

It sounds so Altruistic doesn't it? But of course, it is a false premise.
The ad does not condone Islamophobia. In fact, it refutes it. It provides the rationale to the decision to be cautious. It gives cause to for skepticism. It in no way lends itself to fear but rather to a sound mind approach.
They are talented though, those J Street folks. Picture yourself as a student reading this. Who sounds like the rational adult in the room? Of course, we want to be with the group that is "inclusive" and above such arcane concepts as prejudice and oppression.
But if they would look just a little closer they would see that these are EXACTLY the issues pointed out about Islam and NONE of these charges can be refuted.

PatriotX

One of the first things Mao, Stalin, Lennin and Hitler did was to disarm the citizens. They made sure they were the only ones with guns. In doing this the citizens had no means to resist these monsters.

One of Islam’s goals in destroying our nation is to silence the citizens. They want to make sure they are the only ones with a voice. In doing this, we, as a nation will have no means to resist the propaganda and other bs from these fanatics. We will have no means to inform and educate our youths of this impending threat.

Terror and it’s means of delivery are’nt the only ways Islam is waging jihad against the United States and it’s allies.

mrbean

Just remember that a bit of paranoia is good, Just because you're paranoid does not mean that your enemies are not really out to get you.

mrbean

A famous debate on Sanction vs Tolerance is applicable. I will tolerate your right to choose to believe in socialism, to choose to engage in your deviant and homosexual debauchery, to be stupid, but I will not give it credibility ever by sanctioning it through the evasion of objective epistemological criteria for truth.

aharris

Mr. Horowitz is absolutely correct with his add. Not all fears are phobias. I am very wary and downright distrustful of Islam and its motives; I wish I could put the genie back in the bottle and stick my head back in the sand. It was far more comfortable, but I can't. And, all in all, I'd rather my eyes be open. Knowledge is preferable to ignorance. That being said, I'm hardly phobic. I still shop for my tahini, lamb and other ingredients for Middle Eastern cooking in a Middle Eastern shop operated by a couple of genial muslim gentlemen.

Ben

Good job Mr.Horowitz! Islam use Jewish and Christian shields as it`s terrorists use human shields in Gaza and West bank. The Jewish traitors of J Street and Churches- ME persecuted Christian`s traitors support Islamists propaganda among the students.

Moishe Pupick

Tu., 11/01/11 common era

"Islam Uber Alles!" must be stopped from insinuating itself any more into the U.S.A., the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. "J. Street" are contemporary capos; they should recall the fate of the late Daniel Pearl. The A.D.L. is useless yet again, just as it was while the Holocaust was ongoing.

Dictators hate the 2nd Amendment. Mainstream Jewish organizations who actively lobby for yet more "gun control" are useful idiots for The Moslem Brotherhood.

tagalog

First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

-Martin Niemoller

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

Robert Spencer came for the Communists too.

Yetwave

The Jews who added their names to the rebuttal to Horowitz's ad confuse Teruah, the note from the shofar signaling freedom, with the muslim concept of taqqiya.
With their lack of understanding of the former, they have fallen victim to the latter.
"An appeaser is one who keeps feeding the crocodile in hopes that it will eat it him last."
They will still come for you, J Streeters.

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

Don’t worry. Other Americans will stick up for J Street in the event of an imaginary Islamic conquest of America.

xnylady

If we do not get rid of the Muslims in the USA, we will be a Muslim Country in the near future. We already have them teaching our children, and running our Government, and those in Power have invited them. We need to eliminate ALL the corrupted Politicians, and their enablers, they are the ones ignorant to Mohamed, allowing this invasion. How did our Politicians get so STUPID ……must be the money!

mgoldberg

"…It’s not only about the Jewish and Muslim communities. No community on or off campus should be demonized or disrespected. Instead of fostering fear and rejection, it’s our duty to try to understand each other’s cultures or viewpoints…. It takes special courage to approach the “other,” but it is always worth the risk."

Ahem…. so, the nazi's should never have been 'demonized' because it was disrespecting german culture? This deranged thought pattern, this addiction to the notion multicultural diversity such that no real facts, real hatreds, nor real expressed and acted upon political goals such as the muslim religions expressed goals thru the muslim brotherhood are allowed to be 'disallowed' from exposure, or even mention.

What madness, and worse. The hatred and violence expressed, acted upon and the victims throughout the world- their pain and loss and victimhood is disallowed.

This ugly inversion of reality disallows real victims in favor or the faux 'victimhood' of the Islam. Imagine. The use of victimhood, to prevent ever exposing anything to show who the victims are or who the victimizers are……

PatriotX

Who’s really demonizing Islam? Are we as Americans, demonizing Muslims?

Well, I tend to believe that the earlier Islamic crusades did that, along with the enslavement of black Africans, over 17,800 terrorist incidents since 9/11, promoting the dehumaninzing of women, the attempted assasination of Saudi Arabian official by Iran on U.S. soil, the constant demands that it be treated with special priveledges….etc. These are just a few.

So, once again, are we really demonizing Islam? I personally don’t think that we are. Islam is being demonized by their followers and it’s self, period.

Asher

Keep up the Freedom-Information Train David, What people don't know Will Hurt them, and destroy their futures…History repeats itself……Evil depends on lack of eduction, and lack of truth, and lack of good men to expose Tyranny!

Ozzy

That same BS about women, Unbelievers, and Gays is in the Jewish and Christian bible.
Just sayin'

http://LISTOFFEARS.COM list of fears

Hi there, I discovered your website via Google at the same time as looking for a related subject, your website got here up, it seems to be good. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

Sure. As long as you don’t mind presenting your viewpoint behind a wall of university police while Horowitz presents his with a PA system paid for by your student fee.

MikeWood

Flipside, at last I get it. Your name expresses your mentality. You have everything precisely backwards or as the London Cockneys say "arse about face".

pagegl

And why does Horowitz need such extensive security when he gives a presentation? Because the leftist crowd on campuses cannot stand anyone who does not agree with their party line and will do anything they can, including storming the stage to attack the speaker, to stop the non-approved thought.

If the left truly believed in freedom of speech and expression and respected those those with whom they don't agree and would stop throwing their juvenile piss-off attacks to stifle true free speech then the security would not be necessary.

http://www.contextflexed.com Flipside

He doesn’t need the security. He’s just cribbing style sheets from Elijah Muhammad.